John P. Meier

For other people named John Meier, see John Meier (disambiguation).

John Paul Meier
Born	1942
Nationality	American
Occupation	Roman Catholic priest and biblical scholar
Title	William K. Warren Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame
Academic background
Education	St. Joseph's Seminary and College, Gregorian University, Biblical Institute
Academic work
Discipline	Biblical studies
Sub discipline	New Testament studies
Institutions	University of Notre Dame
Main interests	Biblical studies and Christianity and Judaism in antiquity
Notable works	A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (5 vols.)

John Paul Meier (born 1942) is an American Roman Catholic priest and biblical scholar. He attended St. Joseph's Seminary and College (B.A., 1964), Gregorian University Rome (S.T.L, 1968), and the Biblical Institute Rome (S.S.D., 1976). He is author of the series A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus (5 v.), six other books, and more than 70 articles for peer-reviewed or solicited journals or books.

Meier is William K. Warren Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His fields include biblical studies and Christianity and Judaism in antiquity. Before coming to Notre Dame, he was professor of New Testament at The Catholic University of America.

A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus

Meier's series A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus begins by invoking the methods of modern historical research to "recover, recapture, or reconstruct" the "historical Jesus." Meier suggests that such research might admit agreement of Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and agnostic scholars as to "who Jesus of Nazareth was and what he intended" (v. 1, 1991, p. 1).

Volume 1

• Volume 1 (1991) differentiates the historical Jesus from the Biblical Jesus. It analyzes sources, including the New Testament and non-canonical works. The latter include the agrapha, the apocryphal gospels (such as the Gospel of Thomas), Josephus, and other Jewish and second-century Roman works. For deciding what comes from Jesus as distinct from early Christian tradition it proposes these primary criteria (pp. 168–77):

1. The criterion of embarrassment: Why invent what would invite difficulty for the early church?

2. The criterion of discontinuity: Why reject as words or deeds of Jesus what cannot be derived from the Judaism of Jesus' time or the early church?

3. The criterion of multiple attestation: Is it more plausible to deny words, sayings, or deeds attributed to Jesus in more than one independent literary source (e.g., Mark, Q, Paul, and John) or literary genre (e.g., parable, miracle story, or prophecy)?

4. The criterion of coherence: Given the claims to historicity from any of the above criteria, are different sayings or deeds evidently inconsistent?

5. The criterion of rejection and execution: If Jesus' ministry came to a violent, public end, what of Jesus' words or deeds could have alienated people, especially powerful people?

The criteria are to be used in concert for mutual correction. Still, any claim is only to the probable, not the certain. The rest of Volume 1 discusses the origins of Jesus as to formative years, "external" influences (language, education, and socioeconomic status), and "internal" influences (family ties and marital and lay status). The volume concludes with a survey of Jesus' life chronology.

On the question of references to Jesus in the Talmud, Meier considers the thesis of Joseph Klausner (1925) that some very few rabbinic sources, none earlier than about than late 2nd or early 3rd century, contain traces of the historical Jesus. He presents further considerations and arguments, including those of Johann Maier (talmudic scholar) (1978) who maintains that the Yeshu texts are later medieval corruptions, and writes that:

While not accepting the full, radical approach of Maier, I think we can agree with him on one basic point: in the earliest rabbinic sources, there is no clear or even probable reference to Jesus of Nazareth. Furthermore, ... when we do finally find such references in later rabbinic literature, they are most probably reactions to Christian claims, oral or written.

Volume 2

Volume 2 (1994) is in three main parts:

• Jesus' relationship to John the Baptist (as 'mentor')
• Jesus' message of the kingdom of God
• accounts of Jesus' miracles in ancient and modern minds.

The kingdom of God in the second part (pp. 235–506) is examined as to:

• the Old Testament, related writings, and Qumran
• Jesus' proclamation of a future kingdom
• the kingdom proclaimed by Jesus' words and deeds as already present in his ministry (pp. 451–53).

The third part applies the same criteria of historicity to miracle stories as to other aspects of Jesus' life. Rather than adopting say an exclusively agnostic or Christian perspective or relying on philosophical arguments whether miracles can occur, it poses narrower data-based historical questions (pp. 510–11, 517). Meier is quoted in a 1997 interview as saying: "The proper stance of a historian is, 'I neither claim beforehand that miracles are possible, nor do I claim beforehand they are not possible.'" Meier finds that Jesus' performance of extraordinary deeds deemed miracles at the time is best supported by the criteria of multiple attestation and the coherence of Jesus' deeds and words (p. 630). In moving from the global question of miracles to the particular, Meier examines each miracle story by broad category. That examination drives the conclusion that no single theory explains all such stories with equal assurance and applicability. Rather, it is suggested that some stories have no historical basis (such as the cursing of the fig tree) and that other stories likely go back to events in the life of Jesus (though theological judgment is required to affirm any miracle) (p. 968). At the global level again, Jesus as healer is as well supported as almost anything about the historical Jesus. In the Gospels, the activity of Jesus as miracle worker looms large in attracting attention to himself and reinforces his eschatological message. Such activity, Meier suggests, might have added to the concern of authorities that culminated in Jesus' death (p. 970).

Volume 3

Volume 3 (2001) places Jesus in the context of his followers, the crowds, and his competitors (including Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Samaritans, scribes, and Zealots) in first-century Palestine.

Volume 4

Volume 4 (2009) deals with the ministry of the historical Jesus in relation to Mosaic Law, such subjects as divorce, oaths, and observance of the Sabbath and purity rules, and the various love commandments in the Gospels.

Volume 5

Volume 5, 'Probing the Authenticity of the Parables', will appear in January, 2016.

Critical reception

Antioch and Rome was reviewed in 1984 and 1985 by Larry W. Hurtado 1993 and William Loader.

External links

• John P. Meier, 2008. "Jesus the Jew — But What Sort of Jew?" on YouTube, UCal lecture on YouTube.
• _____, 1997. "Finding the Historical Jesus". An interview.
• John P. Meier - Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame.